Eurovision 2012: My #30 – #21

Time for another helping of Baku’s finest. Well we haven’t quite got to the finest yet, but you get what I mean. It was a good year, all said and done, and I plan to keep the top 28 on my iPod now the contest is done and dusted, which is pretty much level with the last two amazing years. That aside, all 42 entries deserve a good send-off at least, and here we are…

Slovenia

Eva Boto – Verjamem

#17 in Semi-final 2

File this one under “missed opportunities”. Semi-final 2 was a bit of a crowded affair and there had to be losers, but still it was a shame that young Eva was one of them. Slovenia can’t catch a break, and Eva in her vegetable-peeling themed dress performed this sweet little Balkan ballad well. It just seemed to lack quite the impact it did in the National Final performance I saw, particularly without that dramatic “talk to the hand” finishing pose. Very sweet, but just didn’t have quite the punch on the night, nor in its recorded version.

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Moldova

Pasha Parfeny – Lăutar

#11 in the Grand Final

I had a soft spot for this guy, a cheeky chappy who looked like a questionably-dressed Colin Farrell. He certainly knew how to work a crowd, a common thread through Moldovan entries of recent years. It was never really a contender for big points, and was a bit of a flat end to a lengthy Grand Final roster, but it was certainly a decent effort. It was helpfully ripe for some condescending comments from UK viewers at some of the strange turns of phrase in the lyrics, but as a Eurovision fan it barely registers these days … still, “This trumpet makes you mine, girl”??

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United Kingdom

Engelbert Humperdinck – Love Will Set You Free

#25 in the Grand Final

Sigh … another year, another misfire. When we said the UK should strive to get a big name to represent us, we didn’t mean literally, and we certainly meant someone famous NOW. We were assured he was an international star still, though it seems that this was mainly in the 70s, just as it is in the UK. The most exasperating thing is that it’s a nice song, decently performed with good staging. But despite the positive spin we seemed to put on his selection, the song was utterly unsuited for Eurovision, particularly as the first of 26 finalists. I just hope his almost-total failure won’t dig us deeper into the hole we’ve put ourselves in.

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Finland

Pernilla Karlsson – När jag blundar

#12 in Semi-final 1

I’ve wavered on this one, but settled on it being a sweet lullaby song. Swedophiles were all over this purely for being in Swedish, giving them an excuse to show their versatility by stroking their chins and appreciating a non-Swedish entry through a loophole. It’s not an amazing song, certainly wasn’t memorable enough to get Finland through to the final, but the waltzy rhythm to the music really sets it off. Very pleasant under any circumstances, but sadly doomed. Still, it’s the first bit of Swedish we’ve heard at Eurovision for a long time.

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Turkey

Can Bonomo – Love Me Back

#7 in the Grand Final

Oh knives out now. If a favourite song never made it through a semi-final, the blame is usually pinned on either Turkey or Greece who have impressive track records of making it to the final whatever the song is. Still Turkey took the heat off last year by failing to qualify with a dull rock song, and this year they lightened up by sending another cheeky scamp.

Indeed this time his friends come in useful, transforming into a boat when required. This song is rather strange by Western pop standards, but it’s got an infectious rhythm and naff maritime-themed lyrics. Perhaps he didn’t deserve to do so well compared to others that didn’t qualify, but Europe still chose him, so get over it.

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San Marino

Valentina Monetta – The Social Network Song

#14 in Semi-final 1

Well certainly one of the best value-for-money entries was this atrocity from tiny San Marino, all about Facebo… um, Social Networks! A hastily-rewritten version of this song just made the deadline, making even less sense than the original Facebook version. Valentina has this wonderfully psychopathic undertone, casually singing about cybersex and internet stalking with a smile on her face and a glint in her black shark eyes.

It’s infinitely quotable too, whether you are “Googling, giggling, gaggling”, or advising that “if you want come to my house, click your mouse”. The chorus makes precious little sense, a medley of “Ooh uh uh oh, Hello, beep beep” nonsense, completing an impressive barrage of ridiculousness that after dozens of listens I still haven’t got my head around. “Meet you on the internet!”

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Italy

Nina Zilli – L’amore è femmina (Out of Love)

#9 in the Grand Final

After Italy surprised everyone last year by not only returning from a 12-year hiatus, but coming second with a rather leftfield entry, they went a little more mainstream this year. I loved this to start with, but it’s faded from repeated listens a little, particularly with an unsatisfying English translation and a retro-but-boring setup on stage. I fully understood its potential as a big hitter, and indeed it did make the top 10 in the end, but I feel like I still haven’t seen a contemporary Italian pop song yet. Maybe next year.

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Croatia

Nina Badrić – Nebo

#12 in Semi-final 2

Say what you like about the Balkans (my geographically inaccurate term for pretty much anything south of Poland, it seems), but they really brought some good stuff this year. One might argue this isn’t unusual, but I’m certainly appreciating it more. While doing my daily write-ups on each entry before the contest, this established itself as a bit of a favourite. It’s got a quiet drama, simple orchestral production and a beautiful rich vocal.

The tempo isn’t slow enough to bog it down, but I was left expecting more of the dull, dark staging of the performance. It didn’t have anywhere near the impact of the gorgeous video, and I think it suffered there. Nina just seems so watchable, it was a shame not to see her break free of the second semi-final.

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Belarus

Litesound – We Are the Heroes

#16 in Semi-final 2

Belarus have sent some quite endearingly crappy entries recently. Obviously they aren’t the richest nation in Europe, but they really make the effort to stand out nonetheless, and often succeed – moreso to me than to Europe. Last year’s brazen “I love Belarus” was one of the catchiest tracks of the contest, and I hoped this might just squeeze into the Grand Final with this pretty powerful and catchy dance-pop track. I liked the staging and the backdrop, and I am at a bit of a loss as to why this missed out in favour of some of the other qualifiers, but that’s just how it goes sometimes.

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Belgium

Iris – Would You?

#17 in Semi-final 1

Poor old Belgium. Only just outdoing their cursed neighbours Netherlands in the qualification stakes, and buoyed slightly by Tom Dice’s success in 2010. But this was an unfortunate and surprisingly severe flop. I commented before that Iris seemed like a good singer but maybe inexperienced (she’s quite young), but watching her performance again, I can’t see anything especially wrong with her performance.

It even had a nice slot midway through the semi-final and not competing with as many ballads as there were in the other semi-final, but it just didn’t work out. OK it’s a bit unimaginative, but it’s a pleasant love song with a lovely voice. It deserved better in my opinion.

Eurovision 2012: Jury + Televote split revealed & examined!

Well there’s not much more left to say about Eurovision 2012, apart from my countdown of my favourite tracks (coming soon!). There’s still one story left though, one that broke today – namely the announcement of the results split by jury and public televote. OK sure, it’s a statistical geekfest for fans, but one that still could provide a few shocks about last month’s results.

If you didn’t know already, all scores are split in half. Each country has a public televote after all the songs are performed. A shadowy national jury of musical experts also rank the songs based on the performances in the so-called “Jury dress rehearsal” on the day before the final. The points generated by these two rankings are combined to reach a final ranking for each country (I believe the televote takes precedence in any tie-break), and the subsequent 12, 10, 8 etc. points are the ones you hear.

Juries were re-introduced formally a few years ago, perhaps as a measure to preserve the artistic integrity of the contest. In other words, to prevent any shameless trashy crowd-pleaser from running away with victory and dragging the contest into total chaos. That’s the idea though, and there is always plenty of speculation now about which songs would have benefitted from the jury votes, and which were popular with the public. And now we know! Deep breath, there’s a lot to get through!!

SEMI FINAL ONE

Place	Televote	Pts	Jury vote	Pts	Combined	Pts
1	Russia	189	Albania	131	Russia	152
2	Romania	132	Moldova	107	Albania	146
3	Albania	131	Greece	103	Romania	120
4	Ireland	116	Cyprus	90	Greece	116
5	Greece	110	Romania	87	Moldova	100
6	Cyprus	99	Denmark	81	Ireland	92
7	Moldova	85	Hungary	76	Cyprus	91
8	Iceland	79	Russia	75	Iceland	75
9	Denmark	53	Israel	72	Denmark	63
10	Switzerland	49	Ireland	72	Hungary	52
11	Hungary	39	Iceland	70	Switzerland	45
12	Finland	36	Finland	57	Finland	41
13	San Marino	25	Switzerland	45	Israel	33
14	Montenegro	24	San Marino	42	San Marino	31
15	Latvia	18	Belgium	38	Montenegro	20
16	Israel	16	Montenegro	28	Latvia	17
17	Austria	15	Austria	27	Belgium	16
18	Belgium	2	Latvia	17	Austria	8

In terms of the qualifiers, the public and juries were impressively in sync, agreeing on 9 of the 10 qualifiers. The public would have preferred Switzerland to scrape through for a second year running, while the juries wanted Israel to make up for Dana International’s shock defeat in last year’s semi-finals. In the latter case, Israel came a distant 16th in the televote with the biggest benefactor of jury points against the televote.

Iceland and Hungary shouldn’t feel too guilty though, neither were disliked by either group. Indeed Hungary were ranked 11th by the televote, and Iceland – perhaps surprisingly – were saved by the public after very narrowly missing the jury selection.

Perhaps the bigger stories from this semi were the big televote hits whose successes weren’t reflected in the jury votes. Russia is the biggie, totally sweeping this semi’s televote. Even the jury trying their best to sink the song in 8th wasn’t enough to stop the grannies winning the semi overall. In general, a spread-out jury vote meant that big public hits had more clout. Migrant worker favourite Romania and Ireland’s Jedward appealed to the public, with lukewarm reactions from the juries (they placed Jedward in 10th).

SEMI FINAL TWO

Place	Televote	Pts	Jury vote	Pts	Combined	Pts
1	Sweden	180	Sweden	145	Sweden	181
2	Serbia	148	Serbia	141	Serbia	159
3	Lithuania	128	Ukraine	109	Lithuania	104
4	Turkey	114	Estonia	102	Estonia	100
5	Estonia	88	Malta	97	Turkey	80
6	Norway	72	Bosnia & Herzegovina	77	Bosnia & Herzegovina	77
7	Bosnia & Herzegovina	70	Croatia	66	Malta	70
8	Macedonia	63	Georgia	62	Ukraine	64
9	Bulgaria	59	Macedonia	58	Macedonia	53
10	Netherlands	51	Lithuania	55	Norway	45
11	Malta	39	Belarus	52	Bulgaria	45
12	Belarus	37	Portugal	49	Croatia	42
13	Portugal	37	Turkey	42	Portugal	39
14	Croatia	34	Slovenia	40	Georgia	36
15	Slovakia	32	Slovakia	40	Netherlands	35
16	Slovenia	27	Netherlands	31	Belarus	35
17	Ukraine	24	Bulgaria	27	Slovenia	31
18	Georgia	15	Norway	25	Slovakia	22

Altogether much more divisive semi now, despite the public & juries agreeing on 8 qualifiers. The public lost their 9th & 10th picks (Bulgaria & Netherlands), while the juries lost their 7th & 8th picks (Croatia & Georgia). The interesting point here is the lengths the other group went to dredge up these contentious qualifiers into the combined top 10.

The public ranked Malta 11th, with an impressive 5th place with the juries dragging it into the final. The incredible division between juries and the public on Ukraine. I had this down as a public favourite, but they ranked it second-last (17th), with the juries ranking it an astonishing 3rd. When the dust settled, Gaitana made a comfortable 8th place. What the hell?!

More insane disagreements on the other side of the coin too. The public clashed with the juries, on eventual qualifiers Turkey and Norway. Another diaspora benefactor Turkey ended up 13th in the jury vote, but 4th in the public vote. Perhaps the Turks and their fans were keen not to miss another final after last year. I imagined Norway was more-or-less agreed upon as a decent but toothless entry, but I couldn’t be more wrong. The juries placed it dead last, but the public’s 6th place put it in a head-to-head with Bulgaria, one it won by getting votes (televote no doubt) from more countries.

Bulgaria suffered a similar fate by the juries, but Sofi’s weaker televote spread meant she just missed the final. Oddly Georgia came 8th in the jury rank, while the public hated it and placed them last. Finally, poor hapless Netherlands managed to get the nod from the televote, coming 10th, but the juries sunk Joan’s entry in 16th place.

GRAND FINAL

Place	Televote	Pts	Jury vote	Pts	Combined	Pts
1	Sweden	343	Sweden	296	Sweden	372
2	Russia	332	Serbia	173	Russia	259
3	Serbia	211	Albania	157	Serbia	214
4	Turkey	176	Italy	157	Azerbaijan	150
5	Azerbaijan	151	Spain	154	Albania	146
6	Germany	125	Estonia	152	Estonia	120
7	Romania	117	Ukraine	125	Turkey	112
8	Albania	106	Azerbaijan	118	Germany	110
9	Greece	89	Moldova	104	Italy	101
10	Ireland	89	Germany	98	Spain	97
11	Macedonia	79	Russia	94	Moldova	81
12	Estonia	78	Cyprus	85	Romania	71
13	Moldova	75	France	85	Macedonia	71
14	Lithuania	68	Lithuania	82	Lithuania	70
15	Cyprus	63	Bosnia & Herzegovina	71	Ukraine	65
16	Bosnia & Herzegovina	57	Malta	70	Cyprus	65
17	Italy	56	Macedonia	69	Greece	64
18	Spain	45	Greece	60	Bosnia & Herzegovina	55
19	Iceland	39	Iceland	53	Ireland	46
20	Ukraine	37	Romania	53	Iceland	46
21	United Kingdom	36	Denmark	51	Malta	41
22	Hungary	20	Turkey	50	France	21
23	Denmark	18	Hungary	30	Denmark	21
24	Norway	16	Norway	24	Hungary	19
25	Malta	10	Ireland	14	United Kingdom	12
26	France	0	United Kingdom	11	Norway	7

Wow, this post is LONG. Nonetheless, the end is in sight! The good news is that both the public and the juries agreed on Sweden’s victory. Only just though, with Loreen only winning the televote by a slim 11 votes over Russia. In fact the televote was quite polarised, with Russia & Sweden a massive distance ahead of the pack. Unfortunately this left few votes for the bottom of the table, and poor Anggun got the dreaded “nul points”.

So who benefitted from the televote? The juries again tried their best to scuttle the Russian grannies, placing them in a lowly 11th, but the public goodwill was just too much, and they joined Sweden in receiving points from all but one of the eligible countries. The effect of migrant diaspora boosted Turkey & Romania’s fortunes as they did in the semi-finals, with Turkey’s 8th place finish a product of 4th place in the televote and 22nd in the jury vote. Romania had a lesser but still eye-catching disparity (7th vs 20th). Ireland also went down well with the public, finishing 10th in the televote, but torpedoed by the juries who ranked it 25th, ouch!

The juries did their best to rescue other entries though, notably coming to the aid to the Big Five’s females. Italy and Spain both ranked in the jury top 5, but the televote stranded them in 17th & 18th place, resulting in a precarious finish in the top 10. They took pity on poor Anggun too, who scored nothing from the public. Even a 13th place from the juries wasn’t enough to help much, and France didn’t even get close to the top 20. That fixation on Ukraine persisted, with the public ranking it 20th against 7th on the jury rank.

OK that’s enough, there are plenty of eyebrow-raising points in there, too numerous to mention! A real bag of surprises though, wasn’t it? Now I’ve thoroughly bored you beyond the point of caring, I will unleash my ESC2012 countdown in a few weeks time. Later! x

Eurovision 2012: Semi final scores revealed

Oh what’s left to discuss about this year’s contest? I’m feeling a little empty now it’s all over. But I still have you guys (for now!). As soon as the final finished, the detailed results of the semi-finals were released.

You can imagine why we couldn’t know these before the final, it would make the final results a little too predictable. Or even worse, open to manipulation by dark forces. Can you imagine? Anyway, here they are.

Place	Points	Country	Artist	Song
1	152	Russia	Buranovskiye Babushki	Party for Everybody
2	146	Albania	Rona Nishliu	Suus
3	120	Romania	Mandinga	Zaleilah
4	116	Greece	Eleftheria Eleftheriou	Aphrodisiac
5	100	Moldova	Pasha Parfeny	Lăutar
6	92	Ireland	Jedward	Waterline
7	91	Cyprus	Ivi Adamou	La La Love
8	75	Iceland	Gréta Salóme & Jónsi	Never Forget
9	63	Denmark	Soluna Samay	Should’ve Known Better
10	52	Hungary	Compact Disco	Sound of Our Hearts
11	45	Switzerland	Sinplus	Unbreakable
12	41	Finland	Pernilla Karlsson	När jag blundar
13	33	Israel	Izabo	Time
14	31	San Marino	Valentina Monetta	The Social Network Song
15	20	Montenegro	Rambo Amadeus	Euro Neuro
16	17	Latvia	Anmary	Beautiful Song
17	16	Belgium	Iris	Would You?
18	8	Austria	Trackshittaz	Woki mit deim Popo

 

Not really many surprises there, given the final results. The non-qualifiers were surprising though, Belgium I thought did really well and stood a good chance of qualifying, but it totally flopped, below train-wrecks from Montenegro and San Marino. Montenegro beating anybody felt like a bit of a stretch really. Surprise qualifiers Hungary unsurprisingly squeaked through on tenth place.

Very interesting here though is that Russia nearly lost this semi-final to Albania. I had NO idea that Albania could do so well. It was memorable for sure, but I never thought Europe would go for it. Also interesting to see Greece comfortably beating Cyprus, something they failed to repeat in the semi-final, as well as Romania looking in good stead for a top 10 finish that never came in the final.

What about semi-final 2, containing the eventual winner?

Place	Points	Country	Artist	Song
1	181	Sweden	Loreen	Euphoria
2	159	Serbia	Željko Joksimović	Nije ljubav stvar
3	104	Lithuania	Donny Montell	Love Is Blind
4	100	Estonia	Ott Lepland	Kuula
5	80	Turkey	Can Bonomo	Love Me Back
6	77	Bosnia & Herzegovina	MayaSar	Korake ti znam
7	70	Malta	Kurt Calleja	This Is the Night
8	64	Ukraine	Gaitana	Be My Guest
9	53	FYR Macedonia	Kaliopi	Crno i belo
10	45	Norway	Tooji	Stay
11	45	Bulgaria	Sofi Marinova	Love Unlimited
12	42	Croatia	Nina Badrić	Nebo
13	39	Portugal	Filipa Sousa	Vida minha
14	36	Georgia	Anri Jokhadze	I’m a Joker
15	35	Netherlands	Joan Franka	You and Me
16	35	Belarus	Litesound	We Are the Heroes
17	31	Slovenia	Eva Boto	Verjamem
18	22	Slovakia	Max Jason Mai	Don’t Close Your Eyes

 

Some unexpected finishes there too, with Serbia pulling a lot closer to Sweden than expected. But both Serbia and Russia’s power bases were in the East, so maybe they ended up cannibalising each other’s votes. Lithuania managed a shocking 3rd place finish, I assumed he had only scraped though, but good for him, even if his final performance didn’t quite make this grade.

Speaking of close calls, Norway faced Bulgaria in a tie-break, broken when Tooji received marks from more countries than Sofi. A shame Bulgaria couldn’t qualify, they do so rarely, but it would have been pretty rough on Norway too.

I can only assume the juries helped out Joan Franka on the previous night, because her off-key performance of “You and Me” can’t have won many fans. Surprised and sad to see Slovenia and Belarus so low down too, I thought both deserved better, at least better than Georgia and Portugal.

FYR Macedonia’s Kaliopi really got some momemtum after qualifying, managing 13th place after barely qualifying is impressive! I guess that result for Malta was always on the cards, never mind. He seemed genuinely overjoyed to qualify, and it was a pretty definitive result on that front.

I’m hoping the public/jury split will be released soon. In the EBU press conferences after each semi-final, they did say that the public & juries agreed on 15 of the 20 qualifiers (8 from Semi 1, 7 from Semi 2), so I’m very curious to see what those are, and perhaps a clue as to why some of the more surprising results came to pass. But then again I do like the stats!

Eurovision 2012: Semi-final 2 Results & Reaction

And that’s it! Ten more countries, in addition to the 10 qualifiers from Tuesday’s first semi-final, the host nation Azerbaijan and the “Big Five”, we have our 26 countries for Saturday’s big grand final.

QUALIFYING: Serbia, FYR Macedonia, Malta, Ukraine, Sweden, Turkey, Estonia, Norway, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Lithuania

OUT: Netherlands, Belarus, Portugal, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Georgia, Slovakia.

I think this was one of the stronger semi-finals, but that doesn’t mean it was without its surprises. A lot of Balkan countries were in the mix tonight (and more importantly voting), but these songs didn’t sweep the board. In fact some of the stronger ones like Slovenia and (dare I say it) Slovakia took a dive. We also got rid of the last of the novelty hits as Georgia hit the skids.

Some of the losers were no-brainers. Netherlands have never qualified for a final since the semi-final system came in, and they didn’t break with tradition. It was a lovely song, but the poor position in the set-list was going to scupper their chances, at least until poor Joan did it herself by totally messing up the vocals, practically every note was off-key which was a real shame.

Belarus had horrific outfits that really distracted from what would have been one of their more mainstream selections. It could have been so much better. I still loved the song (moreso than Hungary on Tuesday) and the visuals, but it somehow seemed a bit of a mess. Bulgaria’s terrible qualification record continued, but despite a sparse/non-existent stage setup, Sofi really smashed those vocals (apart from the intro), and I thought they might have done enough.

Slovenia and Croatia, some gentle Balkan ballads (I’m not sure Slovenia is Balkan but it might as well be). Slovenia I thought would have a good chance, even if the staging seemed a bit lacking after the simple but effective national final performance. Croatia did itself no favours with one of the more subtle entries (that I loved) with black outfits and out-of-sync dancers, it just didn’t work.

Slovakia screamed their heads off, and turned what would have been a dark horse of a rock song into a mess. Georgia finally started to win me over with a much-improved live rendition of their novelty entry, but Europe weren’t buying it. Send a nice lady next time.

Onto the winners now. Sweden made light work of the semi-finals, but I’m still not entirely sure they are a dead-cert. But they would be a great winner. I just wish she would stop MUMBLING! It’s a great song, please SING IT!

Two qualifiers who made great effort with the vocals as well as spectacular visuals had to be Malta and Ukraine. Both were brought to life on the stage and really put them back in contention. I was particularly pleased to see Malta (and their penguin dance) qualify, they want it so bad! Ukraine really blew me away, very colourful, like a care-free happy clubbing version of Euphoria.

Estonia really brought the vocals too, and a rather handsome clean-shaven Ott (who managed to keep it in his trousers this time) belting out his song. I had this down for the sole heir of the Baltic empire for this year’s contest, but Lithuania managed to take full advantage of its slot closing the show, a backflip and a pretty solid track with great vocals. I think it might flounder a little bit in the final, but good on him for defeating some of the more potent Balkan nations. He was very pale though, do they get a lot of sun there?

Speaking of Balkans, juggernaut Serbia really smashed it, while FYR Macedonia surprised me with a great live performance. I thought it might be a bit screechy but it worked really well. Given Kaliopi’s history at the contest I am really pleased for her. I was stunned to see Bosnia & Herzegovina through though, especially over the more rousing Slovenian entry, but they’ve never missed a final yet. It’s not a bad song, but it doesn’t have the impact of many other ballads getting through.

Oh who’s left? Norway! It was touch and go, and his vocals were a little iffy, but it’s a great song. I expect it to do similarly to Russia last year (i.e mid-table if its lucky) but I’m glad to see them qualify after last year’s injustice. Finally, dependable Turkey get back on the road after last year’s disaster. The song is really growing on me, but I think it really wasn’t communicated well tonight. They should be lucky for all those migrant workers but I’m happy to give them a second chance. The crappy cloaks weren’t worth the human boat punchline, but at least they are trying. Maybe pop open a few buttons next time, Can, and lose the hat!

BBC3’s commentary happily went for the “less is more” approach and that made for a much more enjoyable show, thank GOD. And they let us see the looked-good-on-paper interval act that united the five previous winning acts: Dima Bilan, Marija whatshername, Ell/Nikki, Lena and Alexander Rybak. It was a string of ropey reprises of their winning songs with Azeri backing (though curiously not the Azeri winning song, probably saving that for Saturday), then a very uncomfortable rendition of ABBA’s Waterloo, which Marija seemed to hate. I don’t know WHAT Dima was singing along to though!

Other than the same nonsense with the golden ticket – which I might remind you had NO RELEVANCE to the contest other than a dramatic effect for the last finalist – it was a pretty slick show, better than the first one I think!

Ahead of Saturday’s big final, click “Eurovision 2012” at the top of the page. There you can read my reviews of all 42 finalists, as well as reactions to the semi-finals, and tomorrow a preview of the Grand Final. After the big event I will do a full post-mortem of the results, perhaps on Saturday night (late!) or more likely first thing Sunday.

I have been BLOWN AWAY by the incredible support this unknown blog has received by complete strangers, and I hope you don’t all desert me after Saturday, I will be doing a lot of retrospective stuff of older contests if you are into that, as well as my usual reviews of non-Eurovision albums, singles, movies and games that this blog used to be mostly!! Please “follow” me or “like” me if you have enjoyed my coverage, it would mean a lot to me, it makes it all worth while!! ❤

Eurovision 2012: Semi-Final 2 preview

I just want to open by saying I’ve been totally blown away by the support for this blog, particularly in recent weeks, thanks so much, it means a lot to me and keeps me going on!!

But we are already on Wednesday of Eurovision week, so the second semi-final must be around the corner. In contrast to last night’s semi, there are a number of entries here that won’t go down without a fight. But they can’t all make it…

Remember you can read my individual reviews for the entries by clicking the country name, or clicking “Eurovision 2012” at the top of the page – my ESC2012 reviews are there too!

Serbia – Opening the show, Serbia are sending one of their Eurovision heavyweights into the ring. He came 2nd for Serbia & Montenegro, and wrote Bosnia & Herzegovina’s biggest hit (3rd), and Serbia’s entry for Belgrade’s contest – which he hosted! It’s a rousing track even without the benefit of English. Qualifier? Without a doubt, and a contender for the win, I think.

FYR Macedonia – Good luck following Serbia. Kaliopi might have been through a long journey to finally represent her country, but I’m not sure it’ll attract the voters outside the region. It’s a decent song but her vocals are an acquired taste, something it might take more than 3 minutes to achieve. Qualifier? FYRoM haven’t got a great history of qualifying, and I don’t think this will change that.

Netherlands – I love this one, described as “the ‘Smelly Cat’ of this year’s contest” by Måns Zelmerlöw. I totally get that, and it’s a gorgeous country-lite ballad, it’s catchy as hell, and I want it to qualify. Her outfit is a bit strange but it needs all the attention it can get, given its poor placing in the set-list. Qualifier? It will break my heart but I just don’t see it happening. I will be overjoyed if it gets through, as will the long-suffering Dutch.

Malta – Another one with the whiff of cannon fodder about it. Malta are struggling at the moment, but this is a clear progression from last year’s entry. It might be a bit generic and hasn’t got a lot to say, but it’s a fun up-tempo, the first of this semi. Qualifier? I am always rooting for Malta, and it might just make it this year.

Belarus – After a fantastic mess last year, they are sending a pretty great pop-rock-dance effort this year. It’s benefitted from a post-selection remix, and I think this could be a good year for Belarus. Qualifier? Well if Hungary can manage it…

Portugal – What was I saying about cannon fodder? A real toilet-break this time I’m afraid, I just can’t see this getting anywhere. Portugal have an unparalleled record for poor results in Eurovision, 45 entries with not even a top 5 finish. It’s still managed a few qualifications since the semi-finals came in, but I don’t think this is another. Qualifier? No way, José.

Ukraine – Ukraine have a great track record, 100% qualification from the semis, and often do even better once they get to the final. For this reason I’m confident they’ll make it through, but the song itself – a lyric-lite 90s dance throwback – is joyous enough (especially after Portugal), but not up to their usual standards. That said, I think it’s strong enough to make it through. Qualifier? Don’t bet against it.

Bulgaria– Going an extra mile to please the neighbours, this song says “I love you” in an impressive 10 languages, including the first usage of Azerbaijani in the contest, something even Azerbaijan haven’t done yet! This could be a hot mess, and Bulgaria’s terrible qualification record put it on shaky ground instantly, but it could well outshine Ukraine with Sofi’s vocal range singing a difficult melody. Qualifier? In a just world, it would, but it’ll need a lot of those countries to say “I love you” back…

Slovenia – Another Eastern-European ballad, and she has surprising magnetism in the performance I saw. Staging is everything for something like this, I think it’ll take more than her great vocals to win over Europe, but I hope she makes it. Qualifier? A poor qualification record, but they’ve shown they can do it with the right song, which this could well be.

Croatia– A dignified Balkan ballad now, and I really like it. The visuals in the video really helps so I think this could work on the stage given the right choices, but I worry its lack of big notes and its subtle beauty will be lost, or outshone by Slovenia. Qualifier? I’m not sure, but I hope it does.

Sweden– The juggernaut is here, and all eyes will be on Loreen to blow everyone away like she did at the Globen theatre in March. I’m concerned that her ‘art’ will get in the way of an amazing pop song, and her recent habit of barely pronouncing the words is infuriating for such a strong song. Sweden could land their first win for 13 years with this one, don’t mess it up. Qualifier? Surely it must, or cause one of the biggest shocks in recent Eurovision memory.

Georgia – Time to lighten the mood, Sweden is likely to be a bit po-faced. But maybe not with this, really gaudy and horrible. There’s a catchy melody in there, but this weirdo is putting me off it. Novelties didn’t play well in the first semi-final (bye bye, Montenegro, Austria, San Marino) and I don’t think this is the one to break that trend. A real shame, Georgia have sent some great entries in their short history. Qualifier? God I hope not.

Turkey – Never bet against Turkey – at least that’s what I thought until they deservedly crashed out in the semis last year. This year’s guy has some strange quality to him, and with Moldova a safe distance in the other semi, this is a distinctive pop song that’s bound to get people back on-side. Qualifier? Turkey are back in form, probably not a winner, but at least a qualifer.

Estonia– Finland and Latvia are already out, so it’s up to Estonia (and Lithuania but who are we kidding) to fly the flag for the Baltic bloc, with a powerful ballad. I think this really has a shot of looking and sounding great, and with a nice late position in the set-list, I hope this one gets through. Qualifier? Semi 1 was a Baltic disaster but I think this might make it through, along with his rampant genitalia.

Slovakia – And now for something completely different. A real rocky number, not sanitised for Europe. But there’s a really strong melody under there, and I think it will benefit hugely from being an authentic rock track, as several countries have learnt in recent years. Expect this to do well. Qualifier? I have a funny feeling about this one, it may well smash Slovakia’s previous best result.

Norway – Recent winner Norway had a rude shock when Stella Mwangi crashed hard in the semis last year, but they are pulling no punches this time. Seeing Eric Saade’s success in Dusseldorf proved that modern dance-pop could pay dividends, and so we have Tooji grinding his hips to an ultra-modern but ethnically tinged dancefloor stomper. With a late performance slot, I think Norway could get through comfortably. Qualifier? I hope so, he needs to nail these vocals though, and try not to be TOO gay (though apparently he isn’t)

Bosnia & Herzegovina – Another tender Balkan ballad, and it would probably get lost earlier in the slow. It’s a lovely song, and B&H have a 100% qualification record. I fear the Balkan block voting in this semi will more likely turn its attention to Serbia and Slovenia, but it’s a good effort. Qualifier? A great slot but not sure it’s got the power to get through, perhaps for the same reason Finland didn’t make it.

Lithuania – Not a big one to finish on, and Lithuania certainly have a difficult time of getting through to the final. This one is a little too slow getting going, but turns into a vaguely modern dance track later on. He’s going to need more than a backflip and a blindfold to get this through. I suspect the juries helped Lithuania’s shock qualification last year, but I don’t think they will bail this one out. Qualifier? If he raised his game for the performance, his great slot might sneak a qualification, but he’ll need all the luck he can get.

Phew!! Well that’s the lot, 10 of these 18 tracks will make it through, but which ones?

My predictions: Serbia, Malta, Belarus, Ukraine, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, Estonia, Slovakia, Norway.

Hope you guys enjoy the show, and I’ll do a results/reaction piece as soon as I can after it’s over!